


Running Out of Time

by Kira_Dattei



Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [4]
Category: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)
Genre: Established Relationship, Immortal Found Family, M/M, Post-Canon, Temporary Character Death, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-11-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:15:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,088
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27380302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kira_Dattei/pseuds/Kira_Dattei
Summary: Joe had been inside when the building came down and that was the last they’d heard from him.Prompt: Collapsed Building
Relationships: Andromache of Scythia & Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani & Nicky | Nicolo di Genova & Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova
Series: The Old Guard Whumptober 2020 [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1994617
Comments: 2
Kudos: 147





	Running Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not a whump writer so I can't promise a huge amount of whump in all of these. I just picked the prompt from each day that actually sparked an idea and ran with it.  
> I'm mostly using these as a way to get a feel for the characters and I simply love the relationships given in canon and wanted to explore them.  
> Joe is the lucky whumpee for most of these because I just love him.
> 
> These are all going to be one-shots and none of them are necessarily connected to each other.

Well, this day had gone to shit in a fantastic fashion, even for them, Nile admitted. She wished she could look back over the course of the day and be able to declare where things went awry but she’d come to understand that sometimes things just went wrong and there was nothing that could be done about it.

“I still can’t see him,” she said into her mic, hoping one of the others were having better luck than her. Or, even better, if Joe would actually answer them and let them know where he was and that he was well enough to get out on his own.

“Nothing on the east end yet,” Andy replied, her voice strained in that way it got when she didn’t know where one of them were. And it probably didn’t help that the one unaccounted for had half a building fall on them. “Keep trying. I really don’t want to deal with breaking Joe out of a morgue after something like this. It’s so much harder.”

“Do you have anything, Nicky?” Nile was honestly just as worried about how quiet Nicky had gotten. She was used to regular feedback from Nicky when he spent a mission with his sniper rifle. But ever since they’d lost contact with Joe, he’d been practically silent except when directly asked to check in.

“I believe you’re heading in the right direction, Nile. He was heading to the Southern entrance and I saw people running away from there until just before the collapse.”

“Can you tell if I have a way in?”

“Not from here. I would have to move.”

And Nicky had been in a sniper perch for a reason. The person responsible for this, for placing and detonating a bomb, liked to come see the carnage and Nicky was supposed to be keeping an eye out for him so he could put an end to the fear people in the area had been living in for the past few months.

“That’s fine. I’ll look around so you can pay attention to what you’re supposed to be doing. You just know Joe will be all disappointed if you didn’t get your shot while he had a building on top of him.” Nile hoped that would be taken well. She was learning gradually that Nicky when something was wrong with Joe was very different than how Nicky was the rest of the time. She’d said the wrong thing before and it wasn’t something she liked repeating because Nicky could be downright terrifying. “Take care of what you’re there for and then you can come help us out.” She added almost as an afterthought and hoped the silence from Nicky wasn’t an indication of another fuck up.

She headed around to the southern end of the building. Keeping her distance unless absolutely necessary as a good portion of the wall hadn’t collapsed but was looking very ready to do so. She could hear debris shifting and settling as fires continued to burn here and there, continuing to affect the stability of what was left.

And under all that was the sickening sound of the screams of pain of people they hadn’t managed to get out before the collapse. Proof that they could have done better.

She pushed aside the thought for now, knowing it would come back later whether she wanted it to or not.

She finally spotted the door. Or at least the destroyed door frame surrounded with rubble. But it looked like she’d have enough room to maneuver her way in as long as things didn’t shift too much as she went. And on the way out she would have Joe to help out if they needed to move anything too heavy.

“Joe!” she called out, hoping that he would be near enough that he could hear her even with the crumbling building and burning fires and screams. But she got no response, which really didn’t narrow down what she’d be dealing with once she got inside.

She was procrastinating now so she simply charged toward the opening before she could second-guess herself and waste time. “Can’t wait until I get used to this whole immortal thing enough that this sort of thing doesn’t bother me,” she muttered as she started climbing along the rubble, slowing down to test the footing and stability of each step. “Why can’t I be stuck in a bombed out building and Joe can come get me out? He’d be so happy to play the hero like that.”

Her foot slipped a little as she settled all her weight on that foot but she caught herself easily, controlling her center of gravity with an ease she wouldn’t have had a few months ago.

She really was picking up all those lessons. It didn’t always seem like it when she had yet to land a solid hit on any of the others whenever they sparred. A lucky shot or two maybe, but she didn’t count those.

She was fully inside now, her lungs straining with the smoke clogging the area without a good way of escaping. But there weren’t many fires directly around her. She called out for Joe again, this time only waiting about ten seconds before calling again, repeating the process as she moved further into the wreckage.

When she did finally find him nearly ten minutes later, she almost missed him. His body was mostly hidden from sight under a huge chunk of wall that had apparently collapsed over him but appeared to have missed him, the angle meaning he’d been able to hug the wall and have it fall around him.

Nile activated her comms and relayed a quick, “I found him!” before she rushed to him.

He was currently dead and Nile tried to peer in around him to see what had caused his death, hoping that it had simply been something recent and not something that took longer for them to heal from.

She caught sight of what looked like rebar or something similar sticking into his side, the angle showing it would have punctured a lung and she winced. That was going to suck to pull out and with things like that the body tended to try to push it out and then heal around it if it didn’t budge, which was often even more painful.

She looked past that and saw his sword was on the ground next to his hand and she thought that was strange. He only had it because they’d had to change around their mission as soon as the bomb went off, Joe switching from searching for their target in the building to rescue efforts along with Nile and he just hadn’t wanted to take the time to remove the sheath. That meant that he shouldn’t have had a reason to have it out. Figuring maybe he was trying to use it to get out, she dismissed it for now as she reached in to start maneuvering him out, hoping he would revive soon so he could help out just enough. He’d probably die again soon after until the bar was pulled out but she’d noticed how both Nicky and Joe – and likely Andy as well if she hadn’t been mortal now – had learned how to monopolize time between deaths when they were in situations where they weren’t removed from what was killing them.

She’d just managed to get him free down to his waist, the bar fully exposed when he took in a violent gasp and sat up away from her as he then immediately started coughing.

“Hold on, Joe. I’ll get this out and you’ll be alright,” she declared, his dark eyes turning to her practically panicked. But as soon as he saw her, something seemed to click in his expression and he seemed to focus in on her and what she was trying to do to help him.

She reached for the bar, taking it securely in both hands, preparing to yank it out in a way that she had been told all her life was a horrible idea. Joe turned away, angling so it would be easier for her to get it out, hopefully in one try.

And when she yanked, she had to focus on the task or she’d get distracted by the sickening sound of it pulling free from Joe’s body with a wet squelch. Joe’s yell of pain was harder to ignore and she wasn’t surprised when he went limp again, though she couldn’t tell if he’d died again. She tossed the bar to the side, refusing to look at it to see for sure how deeply inside him it was or if there was anything on the part that had been imbedded in Joe that would have made the wound worse, like a cross section or any widening out.

She grabbed under his armpits and continued to pull him the rest of the way out, confirming that he wasn’t breathing again. Satisfied that he was free and wasn’t around anything that would put him in danger again for the next few seconds, she leaned down to reach under the wall to reach for his sword when she realized that the impalement hadn’t been the only thing.

His left foot was missing, just barely having begun to reform.

Well, that explained why he’d had his sword drawn, she thought as she actually grabbed the weapon, seeing the pool of blood at the other end and seeing that his foot had also been pierced through with another bar but this one had still been attached to the wall that had fallen over him so he couldn’t have pulled himself free.

Joe was going to have a seriously shitty evening. Nile had been warned about dismemberment and a foot could take over an hour to reform, one bone, muscle, vein, and inch of skin at a time. And he might die of blood loss a few times in the process. It was also probably why he was coming back so slowly.

Which she was waiting on this time so he could at least hobble along with her because he was taller and heavier than she was and it would be a lot of work to get him out without his help.

It was over a minute before Joe gasped back to life, rolling more to his stomach and coughing a few times to clear the blood from his lungs and throat. She kneeled down at his side, resting a hand on his shoulder so he knew she was there.

He looked up to her and gave a strained smile, saying something to her in Italian and she rolled her eyes at him exaggeratedly. “That’s just being cruel, Joe, speaking a language you know I don’t.”

“You are the one who refused when I offered to start teaching you,” he retorted, already moving to sit up, his hand feeling at his side where the bar had been, likely checking progress of the healing.

“I’ll accept once I know all your tells for when you’re just screwing with me. Until then, I’ll just stick with Nicky as my teacher.”

“You are really going to start with the one who is more difficult to catch in the act? Not a choice I would have made but it is yours to make.”

Nile rolled her eyes as she handed his sword over to him. Joe took it with a quick thanks, slid the blade along his pants to clean most of the blood off, and easily slid it into the sheath on his back without a thought. It was strangely the little things like that, the familiarity he and the other two had with the weapons they’d carried for centuries, that made Nile excited about learning how to use bladed weapons. Maybe she would find one that she could become just as familiar with despite being born and raised in an era with guns.

But for now, he was moving to a position she could more easily lift him from and she slid in closer to his side so he could hook his arm around her shoulders. She couldn’t help but move slowly to try and avoid causing him pain in his reforming foot, his pale skin and hitched breathing giving him away regardless. They began hobbling their way out, making easy progress.

They’d almost made their way out when Nile heard Nicky’s voice calling out to them, how the sound echoed revealing that he was inside. She replied back and just a few seconds later, Nicky rounded a corner and rushed toward them, embracing them both. Joe pressed his face into Nicky’s neck and whispered something to him too low for Nile to pick out what was said. He then took Joe’s other arm and took most of his weight, Nile barely feeling like she was of any help now.

“We must leave quickly. Emergency services are getting close to searching this area of the building and we need to be gone before they get here. Andy has already moved the car closer,” Nicky said in a rush, obviously still recovering from Joe going dark as he had.

They made it the rest of the way out, Nile and Nicky supporting Joe as they worked their way over the rubble around the door and then once they were back outside, Nicky pulled them to the right away from the main street. Two side streets over and Nile recognized their car, angling towards it and opening the back door once they reached it so Joe could sit and slide over, Nicky following him while Nile closed the door and then walked around to the passenger seat. As soon as her door was closed, Andy was putting the car in gear and driving them away.

Nile looked to the backseat and watched as Nicky pulled off his belt and looped it around Joe’s calf, getting a groan from Joe as he tightened it enough to slow the bleeding.

“Just be grateful you only needed to remove the foot,” Nicky chastised and Joe gave him a wounded expression.

“I’d freed myself and could have made my way out on my own,” Joe defended before giving Nile an exaggerated adoring expression that she had yet to get used to. At least right now she felt mostly irritated at how he was dismissing a fucking building falling on him. “Although I am grateful to my savior, Nile. She did hasten the process admirably.”

His speaking pattern always changed when he was being flattering, no matter who he was talking to and Nile was barely used to that. “Yeah, well maybe don’t have a building fall on you,” she shot back.

“Believe it or not, it isn’t a preferred way to spend my day. However, I will accept that to be my day if that is what it must be.”

“And now you get to grow a foot back,” Nile added.

“It’s just a foot. Could have been a leg or both my legs or part of the torso. I did have a chunk of a brick wall fall on me.”

“Officially, it was mostly around you.” Nile smirked at him then felt bad as he started to kick at the back of her seat but caught himself with a hiss of pain and Nicky said something in Italian that sounded like an admonishment.

Andy gave a quick look over her shoulder, her eyes scanning over Joe before returning to the road. “You do know that the only reason I’m not giving you shit is because you were already in the building when the bomb went off, right?”

“Of course, boss. I know you would have taken great joy in chastising me if I hadn’t gone in until after and then you would have gotten around to asking me what you want to.”

Andy spared him a look in the rearview mirror before asking, “And what would that be, smartass?”

“Yes, I’d at least gotten everyone heading towards an exit. I know they didn’t all make it out but many of them did.”

Andy let out an acknowledging sound but kept her eyes on the road. Nile rolled her eyes at the tough act.

Nicky had moved in close to Joe, pressing quick kisses to his temple and cheek, likely doing what he could to soothe Joe as he settled in against Nicky, closing his eyes and his breathing becoming measured in a way that Nile had come to recognize as him trying to ignore pain. His color was still off and a quick glance down to his foot revealed that he hadn’t even regained his heel yet.

Nile turned back to Andy and asked, “So I guess we’re gonna need to find a place for takeout? It was Joe’s turn to make dinner but I think I’ve seen too much of his insides today to want him anywhere near our food at least until tomorrow.”

“That seems unjust,” Joe complained.

Nile ignored him and continued. “And I’m sure Nicky will be glued to his gimp of a hubby for the night.”

“A fair assumption,” Nicky added in a monotone that Nile was sure she heard the hint of amusement she was getting better at picking up on.

“Yeah, looks like we’re ordering in,” Andy replied smoothly.

“How about McDonald’s? I’m sure there’s one around here. They’re everywhere.” Nile managed to hold in a show of amusement at the matching groans of disgust from the back.

“Heretic,” Joe accused.

“You only say that because you’ve never eaten it,” Nile accused, happy to give Joe some distraction from the pain.

“I don’t need to eat dog shit to know that it’s disgusting.” Nile couldn’t hold in a laugh at that. “And I did eat it once so that I could claim my opinion was based on experience. I will not subject my taste buds and digestive tract to the same torture ever again.”

“I thought you liked junk food.”

Joe had a soft spot for junk food and couldn’t indulge as often as he liked because Nicky wasn’t a fan of it.

“I do but _that_ doesn’t qualify. It is just disgusting.”

They continued arguing while Andy drove them to the safe house.

So, yeah, it had been a shit day but tomorrow would be alright. Nile was certain.

It helped that she knew they likely wouldn’t be stepping foot outside the safe house. Things didn’t go to shit as often in their safe houses.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed.


End file.
